Group touts pre-disaster planning process

Wednesday

Jul 30, 2014 at 10:14 PM

Goal is to create five-county natural hazard mitigation plan

Gary L. Smith of the Journal Star

LACON — An Ottawa-based government consulting agency is trying to generate interest among county and municipal governments north of Peoria in a pre-disaster planning process that would create a new five-county natural hazard mitigation plan.

The North Central Illinois Council of Governments held a “kickoff meeting” for Marshall County on Tuesday. Similar meetings have been or will be held in Bureau, LaSalle, Putnam and Stark counties.

The agency has qualified for state funds that would pay 75 percent of the cost of creating the approximately 200-page mitigation plan, said community development director Ben Wilson. But that requires 25 percent from other sources, and the NCICG hopes to raise that by collecting $300 from each county and municipality, he explained.

“So are we paying NCICG to give us this information?” asked Marshall County Board member Sue McGrath, one of about 12 people at the Lacon meeting.

Having a plan is necessary to be eligible for some grant funding, Wilson said. Any local government can do its own, he noted, but a regional plan prepared by NCICG would provide that to many.

“There are about 65 jurisdictions in the five counties,” Wilson said.

The yearlong planning process would identify potential natural hazards in each specific area, and also pre-disaster steps that might be taken to mitigate the impacts, Wilson said. The NCICG created separate plans for Bureau-Marshall-Stark and LaSalle-Putnam in 2008, and the new process would consolidate those into one.

The plan must be updated every five years to maintain grant eligibility, Wilson said. That would be for pre-disaster mitigation funding, not the separate category of post-disaster assistance.

“There are always funds available,” but the challenge is to define projects, Wilson said. “It’s a matter of finding your way into those funds.”

The agency hopes to assemble a steering committee with members from each county. Marshall County EMA coordinator Jill Anderson will serve, Wilson said, but he got no takers when he asked for volunteers Tuesday.

Further initial meetings will be held Aug. 6 in Putnam County and Aug. 7 in Bureau County. More information and copies of the 2008 plans are available at ncicg.org.

Gary L. Smith can be reached at (800) 516-0389 or glsmith@mtco.com. Read his Northern Circuit blog at pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @Glsmithx.